Kashmir multi-dimensional issue, can't be resolved overnight: Mehbooba

Jammu, Sep 9 Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti said on Friday that Kashmir issue was multi-dimensional and needs sustained and serious efforts at various levels to be resolved.

"It is an complex problem and Chief Minister or Prime Minister can't overnight come up with a solution to this multi-dimensional challenge.

"A serious concerted and inclusive effort at diplomatic and political levels through an institutionalized mechanism are required to resolve it," the Chief Minister said.

The state's first woman Chief Minister appreciated the efforts of the all-party delegation to reach out to various shades of political opinion in Jammu and Kashmir and added that it depicts the true essence of India's vibrant democracy.

She said shutting doors on the All Party Delegation was not going to help anyway.

"Instead of being caught in darkness, the separatists should have met the members of the All Party Delegation and put across an implementable roadmap for the resolution of the issue.

"By shying away from talks a message has gone around that the separatists are not interested in ending the people's miseries by coming forward for peaceful resolution of the issue", she said.

The Chief Minister said violence was no solution to any problem, rather reposing faith in the dialogue process is the only way out to address the issues.

Maintaining that the relations with Pakistan strongly impacts the situation in the state, she said this was aptly understood by the former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Mufti Mohammad Sayeed who worked tirelessly to resolve the issue through confidence building measures, both on internal and external fronts.

"If anything was achieved in Jammu and Kashmir since the partition of the subcontinent, it was between 2002 and 2005 when cross-LoC roads were opened for movement of people and goods and there was peace along the borders.

"Unfortunately, after Vajpayee demitted office in 2004, there was no substantive movement forward on the peace and reconciliation initiatives taken by India and Pakistan vis-A-vis Kashmir leading, once again, to an era of cynicism and alienation in the Valley."